Far-Right extremism on the rise in Israel as Gaza conflict continues

Attacks on journalists and artists and pro-war rallies in Israel point to
growing far-Right extremism fuelled by nation's politicians as much as
conflict with Hamas

An Israeli left-wing activist in Tel AvivPhoto: AP

By Inna Lazareva

11:58AM BST 26 Jul 2014

Israelis who speak out against the assault on Gaza or in favour of a ceasefire with Hamas are increasingly facing violence or even death threats as tensions continue to rise in the country.

Last month, demonstrations in central Jerusalem with cries of ‘Death to Arabs’ brought traffic to a halt. Attending a pro-peace demonstration several days later, witnesses saw a young right-wing participant in a counter demonstration, aged about 10, being apprehended by the police after kicking a female left-wing protester.

Residents of the more liberal, cosmopolitan Tel Aviv said it couldn’t happen in their city. Several days later, it did.

A rocket siren interrupted a pro-peace demonstration in Tel Aviv, sending everyone running to the nearby bomb shelters. Suddenly, several dozen right wing thugs clutching baseball bats appeared and started attacking the left-wing protesters. “Death to the Leftists!” “Leftists are traitors!”, they cried.

Right-wing Israeli rapper Yoav Eliasi known as ‘The Shade’ later thanked his fellow activists for showing up at the demonstration.

“Together we’re a force against the real enemy among us, the radical left, and thanks to my guys who are apparently called the lions, and thanks to the IDF, all this is for you!”, he wrote on Facebook.

These incidents, though unsettling, are by no means isolated. As the Gaza conflict continues, there are signs that rabid right-wing extremism may be spreading further across Israeli society.

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy was very nearly lynched in the rocket-battered southern city of Ashkelon after he published an article levelling criticism at Israeli pilots who, he wrote, “are now perpetrating the worst, the cruelest, the most despicable deeds” in Gaza.

Since then, the journalist has also been the subject of numerous death threats and was recommended by friends to temporarily leave the country.

Israeli film director Shira Geffen signed a letter along with others calling for a ceasefire. The move prompted a response from Limor Livnat, the Israeli minister for culture and sports, who called the directors “a disgrace to the State of Israel”.

Hanin Zoabi, the Israeli-Arab MP, controversially said that those who had murdered the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers were not terrorists but responding to the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank. She now cannot leave the house without security, having been the subject of intense death-threat campaigns.

One of the greatest Israeli-Arab writers Sayed Kashua simply packed up and left Israel for the United States in protest.

It is typical for countries at the beginning of the war to experience a rise in nationalism, according to Yaron Ezrahi, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Hebrew University told The Telegraph, drawing an analogy to nationalism in the UK during the Falklands War.

However, the extremism in Israel is further fuelled “by other factors which are much less related to war”, he said.

“We have in Israel parties and politicians who score political points by inciting hatred against Arabs in general and also Israeli-Arabs”, he said.

“One is [foreign minister Avigdor] Lieberman who has just called for the excommunication of Arabs. The other is Naftali Bennet, head of Jewish Home, who is also an extremist who politically flourishes with hostility and aggression.”

“There is tolerance of this extremist rhetoric by the present Israeli government, including by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who recently made a very unacceptable comment that there is a moral gap between Jews and Arabs.”

Of course, the extremist rhetoric is even stronger in Gaza, where Hamas clearly calls for the destruction of Israel right from its founding charter. But in Israel, a democracy, free speech is dominated more and more by incitements to hate.

The Israeli prime minister, who is largely derided as a hard-right politician in the UK, is perceived as too dovish by those in his own party.

For days prior to the start of the Israeli ground offensive and since, Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman and others have been pushing for a reoccupation of the Gaza Strip. Mr Netanyahu was mocked and ridiculed in mainstream Israeli media for initiating two ceasefires with Hamas prior to the launch of the ground operation.

But the nationalist trend is “largely reversible”, says Prof Ezrachi.

“If Bibi [Netanyahu] and Abu Mazen can come together with the moderate part of Hamas, they could advance the well-being of Arabs and Jews in the region. When the leadership proposes a credible programme for peace, public attitudes conform.”